Calm?
by Pennish
Summary: "Olivia Holmes, keep calm." Calm? There is no calm when you are surrounded by people in suits, next to the egotistical boss, and being locked up for no apparent reason.
1. Chapter 1

"Just keep calm, Miss Holmes, you'll be let out shortly."

This is ridiculous. A steel-glass room to keep a 120 pound girl secured? Seriously? For god's sake she didn't even know where she was, let alone why she was in there. All the people that walked past were in suits, black all-in-ones, looking really serious about everything. There had to be at least fifty, maybe more, people that were walking outside of her container, and she was stuck with Miss Prissy- Bossy Boots 'looking after' her. If you classed 'looking after' as just being stared at continuously with a blank expression on her miserable face.

From what it looked like, the box that she was in was in some sort of corridor, with only five being situated against the back wall of the rocky walkway. Hers was the one on the end of the line, so she could see into the large opening to the left of her. A rocky cave, with metal doors carved into the wall, ten military style cars parked against the wall of the space, but they'd have to jump down from a ledge to reach them. Olivia couldn't think of anywhere in the world where the car-park was underground in a cave, with only three metal doors to allow access to 'prisoners' and for god-knows what else.

Pacing didn't help. Pacing for an hour didn't help. How long has she been in here? She couldn't see anyone else in any other containers in this batman-like underground lair. Who the hell was S.H.I.E.L.D anyway? A club? An all-exclusive bad-guy club? She'd never even heard of them. And here they were locking her up as if she was some kind of animal, in this gigantic metal box.

Olivia strode up to the door of the container, and banged her fist against the thick glass. "Hey. Hey you, Miss Miserable."

The woman with the blank expression opposite her raised her eyebrows, and started to uncross her arms and placed them by her sides.

"Look. I don't know why I have been brought here. I don't know who you are, and for god's sake I don't even know where I am. Can you just tell me why I am here?" Olivia tried to keep her voice as solid and strong as she could, but ended up failing miserably with points in the sentence wavering and climbing in pitch.

"Look Miss Holmes, all you need to know is that you are safest in the box."

"Oh for god's sake. I am not a terrorist. I am an engineer. The least scary job in the world! I did not plan to kill the president, or any other presidents in the world. Unless you are a terrorist, then I don't want to join thanks, I kind of like America's president."

"Miss Holmes, you are not in any danger, we are not going to hurt you unless you act dangerously." The brunette's voice sounded monotonous and slightly too deep.

"Dangerously? I am an engineer, not Chuck fucking Norris."

The woman laughed, placing a hand over her eyes to rub her brow.

"My boss is probably wondering where I am, he'll call. And… sue you. And call the government." Olivia crossed her arms, pouting slightly. She knew she was acting like a child, but she didn't give a damn.

"Tony Stark is not going to be wondering where a lowly engineer is. He probably has hundreds."

Olivia sighed. Damn you Tony Stark. Damn you to everything.

"It doesn't really matter how much he has, he doesn't employ a hell of a lot, and doesn't have lots in his tower. That's only for the…"

"Oh just can it. He won't give a damn. Any anyway, it's eleven at night. Why don't you sleep or something?"

A man ran in from a door just out of Olivia's line of site, the two began conversing furiously, with the woman swearing and raising her voice just above the man's, who looked scared out of his wits, shaking slightly and mumbling. Their facial expression changed from neutral to completely panicked in a matter of seconds.

"Where am I going to… hello?" Olivia threw her arms in the air as the two people ran out of the corridor and into the door to the far left of her.

As the suited people started to run past her container, she realised that they were all either sprinting, or shouting, and began to move all of the containers, that she could see, up and out of the long tunnel poking out of the rocky cave. No one was looking at her, not even sparing a glance at her as they charged full blown ahead right outside of her box. And as soon as it had started, the amount of people running through had dwindled to only a couple every ten minutes, all of the containers, boxes, equipment around her were gone, except for the box filled with her stuff just outside of the door. It was right about then that she started to panic. With no one walking through, she couldn't hear any voices, any footsteps, any sign of life apart from herself.

"Hello?" Olivia missed Miss Miserable already, seemingly growing attached to the masculine woman.

She turned around just to see a light blue smoke appear from the door to the farthest of her, and disappear just as quick. Walking over to the side wall, she pressed herself against the glass, trying to hear anything that would alert her to the fact that she had not been forgotten, merely kept safe from all the harm that was about to happen.

Then as fate would have it, Miserable walked out of the door, though keeping to the area which once held the big boxes of equipment. Paying her not the slightest bit of attention.

"Hey, let me out." Olivia screamed, and threw her hands against the glass again, harder and faster, repeating it until she felt the dull thrum of pain from her palms.

Every instinct Olivia had in her body switched on in an instant, she stood back from the door, trying to pinpoint the door's weak spot, any sort of small weakness. It was a sliding door, which slid down from the ceiling. There was no way that anyone could lift it. There was no way anyone could go through it, or under it. She cursed under her breath, seeing no physical way out of her sticky situation. The only other real solution was to… no she couldn't do that.

She looked above her, and didn't realise that it was made from rock rather than glass. She easily found a small hole which her hands could fit perfectly in. She smiled, punching the air slightly. She jumped, finding she could not reach, so ran at the other wall, and bounced off of that and up towards a slightly smaller hole than the one she had found. She ignored the groan of her muscles and quickly thanked her natural talents for helping her realise, again, how much of a genius she was. She climbed towards the other hole and lifted her legs so that they rested on the top left hand corner of the door.

Quickly establishing that there was only about twelve centimetres left in the slot where the door slid up, she grabbed a smaller rock in the hole where her hands were and started to kick the left hand corner of the door. The container was fairly old, but still quite strong, and didn't budge when she kicked it. She felt a small amount of sweat build on her back and forehead as she used all the strength she could muster to lift her feet and propel herself at the door with quite some force. She felt it shudder in the slightest bit, which was still an accomplishment enough. She continued to propel herself forward again and again, gaining strength and speed with each kick, she felt herself exert force with every kick. Everything screamed at her to stop but finally, the door budged, shattering slightly and leaving enough of a gap to allow Olivia to squeeze herself through.

She sailed through, grinning wildly and whooping to herself loudly, before she fell the seven feet onto her front.

"Ow." She mumbled into the cold rock.

She wasn't paying much attention to her surroundings until she heard the voice of an extremely familiar person. Lifting her head she just made out his long black hair, with his long black cape billowing as he squatted down in the back of the cars, with Miss Miserable chasing after him, trying to shoot him, and failing.

Stupid woman. Shouldn't be so optimistic, instead of using a…

Olivia was stopped from her thoughts when a deafening boom echoed throughout the cave, the walls began to shake violently and small chunks of rock fell from the roof and walls and crashed onto the ground.

"Oh shit." She screamed, scrambling to her feet and sprinting towards the only car still parked in the cave. It was smaller than the rest, and roofless. She ignored the fact that her brain was telling her to not go to the dangerous car, and practically flew over the seat and turned the key to the ignition.

She pressed her foot down until she felt it connect with the floor of the car. Of course it would heat up the engine, but the car's tank was full and the maximum speed was 170. She did her best to try and avoid all of the masses of rocks that were now falling, bringing the whole of the ceiling down behind her. She heard the scraping of rock against rock as it all collapsed in on itself; she felt the ground rumble under her car, causing her to grip the wheel as if it was flying away from her.

There was another, smaller tunnel fast approaching from the side of the tunnel, unsure whether to take the exit, she did anyway, coaxed by the amount of un-moving and upturned cars in front of her. The tunnel was definitely a lot smaller, and a lot more claustrophobic. It was completely pitch-black, save for the light from the front of her car, the tunnel was more stable, but she could still hear the heavy thuds of the rocks falling as she zoomed down the tunnel.

After twisting round every turn and every corner, she came to a straight stretch of road, but the end was closed off by a dark brown metal door of some sort. Seeing no alternative, she kept going, she kept driving. The rocks from the ceiling were fast approaching her, until it brushed against her back tires. She screamed as the car crashed through the metal door.

The scraping of the metal against metal deafened Ella for a short while, as she kept one hand on the wheel, and clutched her head with the other, the slightly stronger- than-normal front of the car didn't crumble under the weight of the heavy metal. But the glass shattered completely, into tiny little pieces. Olivia felt the shards scratch and embed themselves in the skin of her cheeks and arms, all the way up to her shoulders.

The car still moved forwards, albeit a little slowly than before, and she felt the cool air hit her skin, which she welcomed gratuitously. Everything had turned from deafening to completely silent, the air was cool and still, the car grumbled as she spun the car around and onto the small dirt path in front of her, without taking another look back.


	2. Chapter 2

Olivia didn't know how long she had been driving, nor did she really care. Her arms had began to hurt some time ago from where she had locked her arms when clutching the steering wheel. Her shoulders had hunched so much that they touched her jaw. Her hands were numb from where the cold wind had blown against them relentlessly.

Where the hood of her car was, now resided a half torn, half shrunken mess of metal. The windscreen had now disappeared and there was a huge dent in the car where it once was. The passenger side door had now been torn off, and the seat crumpled in on itself, which was now leaning against her side. She didn't know how bad the back of the car was, nor did she care at that point. She knew the car would be useless in normal situations, and it was only a matter of time before the car battery died.

Christ she didn't know where she was, she had been following the desert road for a couple of hours now, and there was still no sign of life. She certainly didn't expect to be home in the next hour, for the only mode of transport out of the cave seemed to be plane or helicopter. Was she even in America anymore?

Her thoughts, and prayers, were answered when she noticed the low glow of streetlights on the near horizon. She exhaled deeply and slammed her foot down on the accelerator. As she approached the hill that obscured her view of the town, she couldn't help but think what had happened, and how everything had happened. Was there a bomb in the cave? How many people died? Who died?

It only took a couple of minutes to reach the outskirts of the small rural town, the low glow of the street lights made the surrounding objects and buildings look beautiful, illuminated with peach light. She slowed down so that she travelled inconspicuously. Well, as inconspicuous as someone can be when they are driving in a ruined military vehicle, looking very un-military herself.

She caught the eyes of nearly everyone walking through the streets, with many with mouths gaping, and soon realised that she had to get off the streets and out of the car. She turned into the nearest alleyway, driving until she was in a small dark space behind some houses.

Switching off the engine, the car made a loud spluttering sound before sagging slightly. She patted the car lightly before relaxing her arms. Then, she realised the immense pain in her right side, which exploded from her hip right to the top of her ribs. She bit back a scream and looked down at herself. The passenger seat had not only crumpled, but a large, jagged piece of metal from the hood of the car had now pierced her side, it didn't pierce deeply, though there was blood spreading through her peach vest from where it had cut her. She then noticed the small blood trails running down her arms and hands, where the windshield had exploded in front of her.

She clambered out of the car before doubling over, clutching her injured side, the searing white hot pain burst through her whole body, numbing the small itching from the glass cuts. She found it difficult to breath. But still limped towards the back of the car, looking in the trunk of the car at the three black boxes, two of which were dented immensely, the back of the car actually slumped towards the ground, probably from the force of the falling rocks.

The surviving box held the few personal belongings she had when she was kidnapped. Her purse, phone, brown handbag and sunglasses. Why they had to confiscate her glasses was beyond her. She pulled the boxes towards her with as much strength as she could exert, which wasn't much, resorting her to standing on her tip-toes to see what was inside the boxes. She opened them and froze immediately. Sitting cosily in the cases were four large, scary-looking guns. Guns. She had never used nor held a gun in her life. Let alone be in a car with eight of these monstrosities. Curiosity got the better of her and she attempted to lift one out of its case, but with her body clearly screaming at her to stop, she quickly dropped it back into its case.

She reached into the box with her stuff in and pulled everything out. Before scurrying away from the abandoned vehicle and deeper into the neighbourhood. She soon reached the exit of the alleyway, which was a small opening just big enough for people to walk through. Sitting down against the wall she pulled her phone out and turned it on.

Almost immediately the phone read _9 new messages _and _5 new voice mails_. She rolled her eyes.

She clicked on the button which allowed her to listen to her voice messages and pressed her phone to her ear.

_Message received 8.00am:_ _"Hello Miss Holmes, it's Sue from the office. You are running an hour late with no explanation as to why that it. Can you call me back? Thanks." _

Sue. The old cranky woman that spoke in a screechy voice, viewing herself very highly above everyone else that she comes into contact with.

_Message received 10.30am: "Miss Holmes, Sue here. You have yet to phone; an unauthorised absence will do badly in your favour. You need to call me ASAP."_

_Message received 5.00pm: "Miss Holmes, Sue again. You better have a very good explanation from your absence today. Come see me as soon as you get in tomorrow." _

_Message received 9.14am: "Olivia, you are yet again late for work. You better not make a habit out of this. Unacceptable." _

_Message received 12.00pm: "Hello Miss Holmes, it's Pepper Potts, Tony Stark's assistant. Now Sue from the office just called to say you haven't phoned in yet, and have not shown up to work again today. Here at Stark Industries we take unauthorised absences very seriously. I would appreciate it if you phoned me back. You have missed a lot here. Thanks, Pepper."_

Pepper Potts phoned? The Pepper Potts? The one who is on the same level as Stark? She never phones anyone who is unimportant, she never phones anyone who is uninteresting the eyes of the Supreme Leader himself. Then again, she had never been off work for two days. She didn't think she was that important to receive a call from Stark's assistant, but maybe she was wrong. Though Stark would never admit it. Never.

She checked her text messages, five were from her friends, two were from Sue, one was from her mother, and the other was from an unknown number. She didn't recognise the number, so moved to delete the message before she read it. But before she did, a name popped up in the review of the text which made her eyebrows rise to her hairline.

"_Miss Holmes, come by my office in the morning. We can discuss your idea further. Please miss the awful grey shirt and black trousers combo, too boring. Tony."_

Olivia smiled, no grinned widely. Stark actually listened to her. Not that she had given him a choice. Frankly, she was surprised he didn't fire her, she pretty much screamed in his face.

Her head snapped to her left when she heard a small commotion coming from where she had parked her car. She slowly got on her feet and started to walk down the small hill which ran between the houses on either side of the street. With every move she had made she felt her body get weaker and weaker, and it soon took all of her strength just to place on foot in front of the other. She felt a thin layer of sweat on her face and body, though she felt a little chilly herself.

She heard voices behind her, voices that were telling her to stop, she needed medical attention. She knew that, she wasn't stupid. But she would be damned if she would let them take her again.

She sped up, moving her legs a little faster and setting her pace a little wider, she saw another small opening to an alleyway just ten feet away from her. That would provide enough cover for a quick getaway.

She zoned out the voices coming from behind her and concentrated on the slapping of her shoes against the stone pavement, she took deep breaths, in through her nose and out for her mouth. Clutching her side as if it would fall, she began to run, though both of her arms remained fixed on her ribs.

She heard the elevation of the volume in the people behind her; they began trying to run to catch up with her. Six men in black suits sprinted down the hill and after the seemingly harmless woman. As soon as she turned the corner, they thought they had her. An easy pick up.

But when they turned the corner, she had gone, disappeared. There were no sounds, except a small pull of something that quickly disappeared. The men stood there, baffled, not fully able to work out where she had got to.

A man with an eye patch strolled down the hill and to the front of the group, his jaw stiffening slightly. He pulled out a radio and held it to his lips.

"Now what in the hell just happened?"

* * *

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	3. Chapter 3

Olivia sat in the bathtub, unable to move as she gently cleaned the large laceration spreading from her hip to the middle of her ribs with her left hand. She was sat in a bath only a couple of centimetres full of warm water, with the shower spraying down upon her like rain. She was not trained medically, only knowing very basic first aid. The wound wasn't very deep, but it still hurt immensely, especially every time she moved her arm even slightly. She had taken care of the small cuts on her arms, shoulders, neck and chin, not requiring much but a simple antiseptic wipe and some band-aids.

But she was beginning to think fixing herself on her own was an extremely bad idea, judging from the pain escalating from worse to immense. She had already taken three aspirins since she got home two hours ago, not that they were helping in the slightest.

Her thoughts drifted back to what she had just experienced something completely insane. No one would believe her even if she begged on her knees for them to. Did she just dream the events that had happened to her in the past few days? The over-bearing pain in her side reminded her that she hadn't.

She knew that they had absolutely no chance of catching her. She wasn't good at any form of fighting, had no idea how to use a gun, but her speciality was disappearing. Disappearing without a trace, no mess, no fuss. Vanishing into thin air, literally.

When she decided that she had cleaned herself enough, she slowly climbed out of the bathtub and put a bandage around her middle, which would have to do for the time being, before she would decide when it is safe enough to go to the hospital.

As she walked through her bathroom and into her bedroom, she stopped and glanced at the damp patch in the middle of her bedroom floor, cringing physically as she remembered emptying the contents of her stomach ungracefully. She sat on the edge of her bed and twiddled her thumbs, staring out in front of her.

It was still pretty dark outside, three in the morning to be exact. She yawned, the searing adrenaline that was once pumping through her body leaving her and fatigue hit her at full force. She led back on her bed and sighed deeply, glancing quickly at her mobile resting on the bedside table, before closing her eyes and drifting off into a less-than-peaceful sleep.

* * *

The next day she awoke in the same position she fell asleep in, staring up at the intricate swirling white patterns on her ceiling as she had done many times. The sun was shining through her cream curtains, illuminating everything with a warm glow. She almost forgot about everything, too caught up in the peacefulness of the moment. She smiled to herself; she stretched her feet and toes, her legs to their full length, and then moving to stretch her arms above her head. She screamed when the blinding pain spread throughout her whole body.

She slowly moved her arms down to cradle her middle, her eyes watery, and she pouted her bottom lip. Enough was enough. She was going to the doctors.

She slowly crawled out of bed and barely managed to get ready and put on her clothes, crying the whole time, white shorts and a light peach loose vest, along with her trusty small gold necklace, with a small outline of a heart dangling from the front. She slipped on her pink flip flops and shuffled to the kitchen, where she attempted to pour herself a cup of coffee, which she failed miserably.

Looking through her cupboards, she found that all she had was some coffee beans, one tea bag, some tomatoes and a packet of crisps. She sighed in exasperation, grabbing her keys and bolted out of the door.

She walked down the stairs of the apartment building, every step reverberating through her body and sending shooting pain through her abdomen. She winced as she walked out to the bottom of her street and to the local shop.

She could feel all eyes on her as she placed random items in her basket, all with one arm. When she got to the checkout the man in front of her eyed her wearily.

"Are you okay Miss."

Olivia looked up and smiled. "Yes, thank you for asking." Trying to shove all of her shopping in her bag as fast as she could.

"You're bleeding." He pointed at her vest.

She looked down at herself and saw a small deep red stain starting in the middle of her ribs. Her eyes widened as she thought of an explanation. "Oh, that was my son, he got a cut on his head, and he's resting at home, poor boy."

The man nodded as she paid for her things and left. Nearly running back, trying to ignore the unwanted stares she was receiving. She sighed loudly in relief as she reached her apartment door. She pushed open the door and dragged her shopping bags along the floor with her.

At that moment the home phone began to ring, causing Olivia to trip over the bags and shuffle to the wall phone in the kitchen. "Hello."

"Miss Holmes, it's Pepper Potts."

Olivia swore inwardly as she realized she technically missed three days of work without any contact. "Oh hi Pepper."

"I'm just calling to tell you that you need to come to a meeting in an hour to discuss your absence with me and Mister Stark." Potts sounded annoyed, her voice clipped.

Olivia began to slowly unpack everything, the eggs, peppers and butter in the freezer. "Oh, okay. I can explain my absence but I really doubt that you will believe me."

Peanuts and pretzels in the cupboard closest to the fridge. "I'm sure that's not true."

The bread in the…

And then she froze, every single muscle in her body freezing as her breathing began to speed up. She remembered locking the door, not leaving it open.

She backed up from the kitchen counter and turned towards her door.

"Olivia?" Pepper's voice sounded far away.

Where there was once an empty hallway, eight people in familiar black suits stood pointing their guns at her. She froze, completely unable to move as she looked between all of their faces. She trembled violently.

"Pepper listen to me, I am in danger. I have been locked up and kidnapped by crazy-ass men in black cat suits. They are in my apartment with massive guns and I am going to die. Send people. I don't care if it is the FBI or clowns with balloon guns, I don't care. Just…" Olivia screamed and dropped the phone as a tall, black-haired man shot the phone, exploding it into small pieces.

From in between the mean-looking men aiming their large guns at her, a bald man with an eye-patch stepped into her apartment. He smirked at her, crossing his arms.

"Miss Holmes. I am Nick Fury."

She didn't respond, only frowned at the man.

"You appear to be injured. " He gestured to the blood stain on her vest. She just stared at him. "If you come with us, we will not hurt you and we will attend to your wounds."

Olivia scoffed, and grabbed the neck of the wine bottle she had just bought. "Get out of my apartment. Now."

"Now Miss Holmes there is no need…"

"Get out of my house." She screamed at the top of her lungs, hoping that one of her neighbours would hear her. She didn't live in a rough area, but everyone kept to themselves. As soon as she used all of the air in her lungs she groaned, dropping the wine bottle and putting her hands on her sides.

The wine bottle smashed on her floor, the deep purple wine flying everywhere and spraying up the legs of everyone, the glass spread in a six feet circle.

"Miss Holmes. We can do this the hard way, or the easy way." Fury placed his hand inside his cape and grabbed something gun-like.

Olivia glared at him. "Not if you can catch me." She gritted her teeth, preparing herself for what she was going to do. Standing to her full height she took a deep breath.

Pain, a mix of mind-numbing ice cold and searing heat spread through her neck and to every crevice of her body. Her veins sent mini razor blades through her muscles, and they all seized involuntarily, causing her to fall to the floor. Her head bounced off the mahogany floor, dull pain spread through the inside of her skull.

She groaned loudly, unable to move any of her limbs, feeling completely useless. Her vision swam as she stared up at eye patch man as he strode towards her, holding the other end of the taser.

"I cahn belif you jus tase me." She mumbled, unable to cohere any sentences.

"You will be fine Olivia. Trust me."

Trust him? Eye patch man even had the eye patch to symbolize his evilness. She was about to respond when she felt the sharp prick of a needle hit the sensitive skin of her neck.

* * *

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	4. Chapter 4

Olivia's eyes flew open and she quickly sat up. Everything in the room around her was a light grey metal, the walls, the floor, her 'bed', which was just a metal slab raised from the ground. She didn't even see a door anywhere. How was she supposed to get out, or anyone get in? The room itself was roughly ten feet by ten feet, with a high ceiling. There were no patterns on the ceiling, no patterns on the walls and no marks or lines on the floor. There were no sounds; the only thing she could hear was her breathing. The air was cool, causing goose-bumps to rise on her arms.

She looked down at herself; her top was now missing, and a clean white bandage in its place, covering her chest and stopping just above her hip bones, like a tight, sleeveless rag. Her necklace was still in place, but the heart was facing the wrong way round, signalling that someone had taken it off, and then put it back on. She had lost her shorts and had now gained light grey loose jogging bottoms. Her hair was still in the un-brushed mess that it was in when she was kidnapped.

She gasped, her hand rising to her mouth. Eye patch man. She was kidnapped against her will. She was tasered. They broke her phone, and bottle of wine. And god knows how many people have seen her naked, judging from the loss of her bra and shorts.

She was hesitant, but slowly made her way off of the bed. And to her complete surprise, her side no longer emitted any pain, she couldn't swing her right arm, but she could move it. The cuts along her arms had now faded to little pink marks, the small wounds drying up. She smiled, before remembering where she was.

Suddenly a loud whooshing noise echoed throughout the room and the metal walls began moving. The wall to the left of her quickly shot up and through the ceiling, revealing a thick pane of glass. On the other side, Nick Fury stood with his hands behind his back. He looked to be standing on a corridor on a bridge, there was a small amount of space between the glass and himself, railings prevented him from falling through. He seemed to be the only one out there, no other sign of life as far as she knew.

"Ah, you're awake."

"No shit." She frowned at him. "Where am I?"

"You are at the S.H.I.E.L.D base, Miss Holmes."

"What?" She placed her hands on her hips. "What the hell is Shield?"

"Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division." He replied with a blank expression.

"I've never heard of it."

"I'd be surprised if you had."

Olivia eyed him wearily, sighing and shaking her head. "Why am I here?"

"To keep you safe."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean."

"Miss Holmes, your… talents, could get you into trouble."

"If you know so much about my talents then you know that I can escape, ass hole."

Fury chuckled lightly, making Olivia's blood boil. "I don't think so."

A sharp shooting pain shot through her feet, a low buzzing sound quickly dispersed. "Ow." She shouted, jumping in the air, and checking her feet for any bleeding.

"It won't cause you harm. So long as you stay in the box." He glanced towards his pocket, picking out a radio and placing it to his ear; he muttered something too quiet for Olivia to hear. He looked up at her and smiled. "Oh and I think the structure of the room itself is a little above your pay-check, less chance of you escaping." Her mouth hung open in insult. "Get some rest."

As he turned to stride away the metal came down with a jolt, leaving her face to face with smooth grey metal. She whacked her fist against the metal in anger, and she looked around for any source of entertainment. There was nothing apart from the table that she had just woken up from. She wrapped her arms around herself and sat down on the side of the cold slab, figuring that there was nothing else to do, she led down, slowly closing her eyes and willing herself to sleep.

After what seemed like a couple of hours of just lying there, she heard the familiar whoosh, although it was quieter, and two sets of footsteps. She opened her eyes to see two women dressed in the familiar black suits enter with a small portable tray. She quickly sat up and stared at the two, one had short black hair and brown eyes, with a pointed nose, and thin eyebrows, while the other had curly light brown hair, light brown eyes and a slightly heavier brow. The one with the brown hair smiled warmly at her.

"Don't worry; we're here to check your vitals and to check your stitches." Olivia just stared at her with wide eyes, holding her tongue. "I'm Debbie, and that's Claudia, we're your nurses."

"You don't look like nurses." She was quiet, and remained alert, in case they tried anything.

Debbie looked down at herself and smiled again. "Oh this is part of the uniform, not the most comfortable thing to wear when you're treating people." She had the faint accent of Southerners, pronouncing her o's in a slightly higher pitch.

The two nurses set to work of taking of her bandages, and allowing Olivia to see what they had done to her. When it was completely off, a large bruise covered her mid-section, and in the middle was a long line going up her side, secured with a number of stitches. The area looked clean, and the stitches looked professional, slightly re-assuring Olivia to the fact that there was a fully qualified doctor there.

"Oh honey, what did you do? It looks quite painful." Claudia spoke up for the first time, her voice deeper than that of normal women.

"I drove through one of your thin metal doors as the cave where I was held collapsed on itself." Olivia glared at the two of them as they both hesitated for a short moment.

After re-applying her bandages, the two nurses placed the tray they had brought in on the table next to Olivia. On it was a small syringe, wipes, a white cup with water in and an apple.

"We'll just give you some pain medication, and the water and apple are for you." Debbie smiled sickeningly at her.

Olivia's eyes wandered to the back of the room as the nurses injected Olivia's inner-arm. Her eyes stopped at a glass door that had now made an appearance at the back-left of the room. Her breath hitched slightly and she felt her pulse speed up. The floor wouldn't electrocute the two nurses, unless their shoes had rubber in the soles, she could see outside, and had now regained full control and was well rested.

She glanced back at the nurses, who had just finished injecting her and were now wiping her forearm. She quickly glanced around and sighed.

"Uh, what happens if I need to use the bathroom?"

Claudia looked at Debbie, then back at Olivia. "Well, tell us and we'll get a bathroom in here."

Olivia nodded. "Will people see? On the cameras?"

"Oh no, the cameras are pointed in a different direction when you use the bathroom." Debbie smiled again. She was beginning to get really creepy.

"Can I use it now?"

Claudia hesitated before smiling briefly. "Yes, of course. Let me just go outside and get it up for you."

Claudia took the tray and walked up to the door, which she then pressed her hand against, and it lifted up through the ceiling. Debbie stayed in the room with her.

"Now you may begin to feel a bit woozy, a bit disorientated, that is normal; the side effects should wear off nearly instantly." Olivia didn't even need to look at her to know she was smiling, she could feel Debbie's gaze on her, and it made her want to shrink away, completely creeped out.

There was a loud jarring sound, followed by clogs of some sort, and then a space in the floor opened up, and a small bathroom rose slowly from the floor. A toilet and a sink were all the 'bathroom' entailed.

"Wait where's the bath? The shower? How am I going to wash myself?"

Debbie had begun to get up, and slowly make her way over to the now visible door. "Oh, we'll be bringing those in ourselves sweetie. Now you tell us when you're finished." She raised her hand and pressed it against the glass of the door.

Olivia quickly got off of the table, ignoring the slight numbness of her limbs, and before the door had time to close, Olivia disappeared into thin air. She reappeared outside of the room, stumbling to catch her balance. There was a long metal corridor, with no doors or lines such as her room, but she knew that there must have been twenty containers on the other side. She looked down the corridor and at the two nurses, who were completely oblivious to what had just happened, as they were too busy engrossed in their conversation about 'who was the yummiest' and 'who had the best butt'. Pssh. Shallow.

Olivia slowly made her way down the corridor in the opposite direction that the two nurses were traveling. Pressing her back to the wall and trying to be as unseen as possible. At the end of the corridor was another long, but the walls were of a dark grey, turning either left or right. She turned her head to see the two nurses slowly turning around after pressing some buttons on a control panel on the other side of the corridor. Their faces were plastered in horror, as they began to sprint to her container.

Olivia watched long enough to see them run into the room, then run back out and talk on their radios. Then a red flashing light flashed repeatedly throughout all of the corridors. She swore under her breath as she began sprinting down the corridor to the left of her, shortly coming to an open space where men and women were watching computers and laughing with cups of tea. She froze as one by one all eyes landed on her, they began to shout at her, and she screamed and ran full pelt at a large, thick, scary looking metal door with lots of large bolts at the end of the room. People watched her every move, some moving to try to catch her, some leaning back and smirking, but nothing made her want to stop. Her heart pounded at a hundred miles a minute as she held her arms crossed in front of her, bracing for impact, and as soon as she was close enough, she disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the door.

A long, dark corridor was all that she saw for about five minutes, where she had slowed down significantly, her breathing heavy and her limbs already tired. The corridor branched out a number of times into little rooms, the doors were closed but there was small signs outside on the walls saying 'AV3401', which she guessed was the room numbers. She began to pick up her speed when she saw a low light coming from the end of where she was traveling.

She began to jog when she heard a commotion at the end of the tunnel, when she turned the final corner, she saw large containers and thick metal tubes, and glistening small metal turbines cooled down the metal cylinders running all the way around it. She smiled, somewhat relieved to come to the under-belly of wherever the hell she was. This was where the place functioned, apart from the control room. She was at the entrance of the tunnel when she heard shouting coming from behind, and to the left of her, quickly looking round, she saw tens of serious looking men in black suits running towards her.

She didn't need to take any more time in deciding that she was going straight through the metal cylinders, only hoping that there was a way out on the other side. She sprinted at the tubes, before disappearing and reappearing ten feet away, completely surrounded by thinner metal tubes running all the way around her. She dropped to her stomach and began to crawl under the poles, cursing herself whenever she touched the cool of the metal against her shoulders.

She heard countless number of voices either side of her, but she didn't pay any attention. She just focused on the task at hand, trying to manoeuvre her way through this endless maze of metal. And just as soon as she crawled in, there was a slight hill which she could just crawl through and up and she was lying on a light grey metal walkway. She lay there, panting for a few minutes and waited for her breath to come back.

When she was calm enough, she climbed to her feet and walked towards thin metal stairs, rising to another walkway in between metal tubes, looking exactly like where she had just come from except this path was shorter, colder and had larger steps, which led up to a metal door, a level above her. Once she was at the door, she pressed her ear against it, hoping to hear something on the other side, but with no such luck, all she could feel was her ear gradually get colder and colder, until she took a few steps back and closed her eyes.

When she opened them she noticed she was in a much lighter area, wherever she was now had much cleaner, smoother air to where she once was. A long corridor stretched out in front of her, with large exits and entrances situated every couple of feet. She did not like the idea of many people seeing her, so she just did a quick jump to the other end, where an elevator awaited her.

As soon as she stepped in, it slammed shut. Dodgy music started to play as she felt herself ascend to god knows where. She actually started to enjoy the music, swaying slightly when the elevator doors opened to reveal a busy corridor, men and women in black suits walked in front of her and weaved in and out of each other, she didn't know what was round the right corner, but she was curious to find out as all of the people seemed to walk in that direction. There was a low murmuring hovering in the air, coming from all different directions.

She tentatively stepped out of the elevator, her arms covering her chest as her cheeks reddened slightly. She tried not to draw any attention to herself, which was hard considering what she was wearing, and what she looked like. But, as she guessed, soon she felt a dozen eyes on her as the direction of the conversation began to slowly go to her.

She sped up, turning into a sprint as people dragged out their radios and spoke into the pieces. She turned the corner only to stop with her mouth hanging open. There were two levels of people on computers, as well as some lower in the floor. Rows and rows of screens stared back at her and loads and loads of people stared blankly at them, furiously typing away at them. In the middle of this computer jungle there was a sort of platform with three clear glass screens at waist level, two on the sides, one in front, the two to the sides had handles on them. She presumed for holding someone up, and she nearly jumped when the screens flashed alive and gave hundreds of pictures and bright colors, beeping and flashing lines. She turned her head to see a large black, see through glass table towards the back of the room, there were approximately ten black chairs surrounding the round table, all looked very professional.

When agents started appearing where the table was, she slowly backed away until she came to a light grey door to the left of her. Before she could enter the room, she felt a hand reach out to grab her. She squealed and disappeared, appearing inside of the room, which she thought was a cloak room.

She was wrong.

There was another larger, longer corridor where many agents were waiting for her. Guns drawn and faces stony. Fury stood behind his man shield, his stupid smirk plastered all over his face.

"Give up. You won't get out."

Olivia smiled sweetly, and raised her hands in the air, before stopping them and flashing the middle finger at all of the soldiers, and disappearing.

She landed with a thud on the grate path. She felt the lines indent on her skin, and also felt the little twinge of pain coming from where her arm hit her bandage. She groaned as she slowly got to her feet, but took off running , in any direction. Left, black room, front, corridor, front, grey room, right, corridor.

Until she took another step forward, she was inside a lab of some sort. With white flashing machines, screens coming from the ceiling, cupboards lining the walls and computer screens on top of the cupboards. She gaped as she took in everything, turning around to look outside a large window, where she saw a large crescent moon shaped space where corridors and rooms should be, instead was an empty space where she saw where the points of the dark grey walls finished, instead of having dirt of brick, it was an empty space, where she could clearly see clouds. Clouds? She looked down, more clouds and blue.

She gasped loudly, she was flying. She was in a spaceship and was being abducted for government experiments.

She jumped as she heard the whoosh of a door, backing up and facing the now open door, she frowned as two figures strode into the lab.

One had messy brown hair, shirt not tucked in to his trousers; his overall appearance was shaggy. He froze as he stared at her, confusion written on his face as he held his glasses just a few inches away from his face.

The other person was unmistakable. And seeing him here just made her want to puke. The good, kind gentlemanly king who was Tony Stark.

He just looked at her blankly; no hint of recognition crossed his eyes of face. She began to breath hard and fast, anger bubbling inside of her.

"What are you doing here." She locked her jaw.

Tony looked around, as if she was talking to someone else, then pointed to his chest and mimed 'me'. "Well sweet cheeks I am actually a scientist slash philanthropist slash nuclear physicist slash handsome devil, I could go on for days here, you're going to have to give me more than that."

"Don't you know who I am?"

"A woman who is currently running around a shirt on, which begs the question did you get away from Coulson? I swear to god the man is a chick magnet, just look at his dashing good looks and magnetic personality."

"What." Her mouth hung open and she shook her head. "No, I work for you. I can't believe this. This is unbelievable." Her volume was escalating as her anger was building. She began to walk towards the two when she felt a sharp, mind-numbing pain in her neck, causing her to seize up, close her eyes and fall on the floor.

Behind her stood a woman with short, copper locks, red lipstick and the tightest clothes a woman should not have to wear. She touched the radio in her ear and sighed.

"Fury. I've got her."

* * *

**Thank you everyone who has reviewed and story alerted! c: ****It makes my day a hundred times better!  
**

**Tell me what you think and I will be on my way with Chapter 5!  
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	5. Chapter 5

Olivia didn't open her eyes when she first became conscious, rather left them closed and concentrated on her breathing. Her deep, even breathing. She then felt the cool air around her limbs, wiggling her toes and bending her fingers, attempting to move her arms and legs but finding that she was being held in place by cold metal around her wrists and ankles. She frowned, not liking the restriction. She clenched her fists and began to move her arms, struggling against her restraints.

"I wouldn't really try to do that."

A voice pierced through the air, causing her to stop and relax. She opened her eyes slowly, allowing time to adjust to the bright light coming from the right of her. Her gaze landed on the all-too-familiar pattern-less grey ceiling of the cell she had yet to accustom herself to. She sighed, before lifting her head from the cold table and staring down at herself. Still wrapped hip-to-chest in clean white bandages, with the familiar light grey jogging bottoms, the cool air clung to her skin a little too much, suggesting she had recently been wet.

"How you feeling sweet cheeks?"

She turned her head to the left to discover the movable metal wall had been taken off completely and the thick glass stood in its place. Her eyes landed on a figure she had not wanted to see, leaning forward against the railings of the walkway, with the same blank facial expression, his thick, dark eyebrows raised slightly awaiting her response.

"Oh for god's sake. Stark?"

"It's great to see you too princess. You look peachy!" He smiled, not showing his teeth.

"Peachy? I can't move my body. I wouldn't really call this peachy." She didn't mean to snap, but she hated feeling so vulnerable, unable to move, or help herself.

Tony stood watching her for a couple of minutes, but she did not reciprocate, choosing to stare at the ceiling instead. "So I see that you're a little tied up at the moment…"

"Stark."

"Is this some part of a kinky game between you and Coulson?"

"Who the heck is Coulson?"

"Or is it Fury? I knew he was in to some weird things. Maybe he likes pirates, because eye patches are pirate-related."

"Would you just shut up and leave me alone." She yelled, turning to look at him with a deep set frown in her brow.

Stark stopped and resumed staring at her, appearing deep in thought. This was the first time Stark had actually acknowledged her existence, and though she was extremely irritated by it, she actually quite enjoyed his attention. But, as always, he found a way to make her feel one hundred times smaller.

"How do I know you?" He whispered.

She felt whatever happiness and excitement she once held fall fast, and deep into her stomach, causing her to cringe as she felt a wave of sickness wash through her. She her eyes begin to water, as she bit her lip to try to stop herself from crying in front of him.

"I work for you."

Stark nodded his head. "I've never seen you around."

She scoffed, shaking her head. "Do you know how long I have worked for you?" He looked at her, not answering. "Five years. Five years of my life I have wasted on trying to catch your attention so that I can use my skills to the best of my abilities. Wasted. God I bet you don't even know how employees you have."

"To be precise? Or rounded to the nearest hundred thousand?" There was an edge to his voice that made Olivia regret every single word she had just said. "Three hundred and one thousand, two hundred and thirty seven. That is how many jobs I have created, you are one of them." She dared to look at Tony, who now had his arms folded across his chest and was frowning deeply. "I may not remember all of my employee's names, but I know the importance of all of them."

Olivia had never heard him speak so passionately about the people that work for him, she discovered a new found respect for him because of it. She smiled, maybe Tony wasn't at all what she had thought he was.

"Even receptionists like you."

Ruined it.

"Just go Stark." She had finished speaking to him, and turned her head to the other side to show she had. After a few minutes, she heard the small sound of his feet slapping against the metal grate, walking away from her.

Though she still felt uncomfortable, still felt as if she was not alone, even as quiet as it was.

And turning her head, she realised she was right, she was not alone. But in Tony's place was the bald man with the eye patch.

"Calmed down yet?" His deep voice scared her slightly. She did not like being under his gaze. "If you decide to run about again, I have ordered my men to shoot you. Do I make myself clear?"

"This is ridiculous. I don't know why I am in here, why you are being so hostile towards me, and why you are wearing that eye patch. Can you please give me some answers? I am begging." She began to get hysterical, her fear overcoming her; she began to cry, feeling utterly helpless.

Fury clicked his tongue, sighing. But instead of saying anything, he simply walked away. Whether in disbelief or in anger, Olivia screamed loudly, releasing all the pressure she had felt in her chest and throat.

Suddenly, she felt the cool, dull metal begin to slide off of her ankles and wrists, she looked down and watched them curve from one side of her limb to the other and disappear into the table. She raised her arms and stared at them, checking if they were uninjured. She also heard the familiar whoosh of the metal sliding into the ceiling and saw the black billowing figure of Fury at the door.

"Come with me."

* * *

After walking for what seemed like an hour, which was filled with embarrassment and discomfort by all of the workers and spies staring at her lack of clothing. They finally walked into a room with large computer screens, ten of them dotted across one wall, and three huge glass panels against the opposite wall. Fury stood in front of one of panels and motioned for Olivia to join him.

As soon as she did, her eyes widened and her breath caught in her throat. They were both staring at a large glass cage suspended by a few thick metal clamps. She quickly looked under the cage to find a twenty feet drop onto a metal door, which she suspected opened and closed easily. Not only was it the structure of the cage that amazed her, but also the person who resided in the cage.

Staring back at her with sparkling green eyes was the person she had met years before. He still looked the same in every way, his hair, his skin, his teeth, his height, even his hands, even his clothes. She cringed slightly, wondering if he had continued wearing the same clothes for years without washing them.

She knew she should have felt angry, even furious to see him. But she couldn't help feel a little spark of happiness at seeing him again; the warm feeling in her stomach caused her to fight back a smile.

Fury remained facing forward, watching Loki's expression, seeing any changes, which there was none. "He is the reason why you are here."

Olivia's head snapped up to stare incredulously at Fury. "What?"

Fury looked down at her and placed his hands behind his back. "You see, we had an encounter with his brother two years ago." _Thor. _"And he actually produced an energy which was unknown and un heard of to humans, telling us that he was…" Fury paused. "different. So we looked back a few years, and found that exactly fifty years ago, the same 'energy' was recorded, and then again five years ago." Fury turned himself to face her fully. "Suggesting he, or someone like him was here before." Olivia looked at her feet. "We tracked the energy, and found that there were traces of it all around you and your apartment. So we have been watching you for five years to see if another 'different energy source' was hiding in your house."

"You followed and watched me?" Olivia's mouth hung open in insult. How much had they watched?

"For the protection of everyone else around you. His brother caused millions of dollars worth of damage, and I guess destruction runs in the family as this 'man'" Fury motioned to Loki "has done exactly the same."

"I am nothing like my 'brother'." Loki's smooth voice floated around in the air, causing shivers to run down her spine. The two turned to look at the god, who was facing them, hands behind his back, mimicking Fury.

Fury smirked. "This conversation does not involve you."

"I believe it is rude to speak about someone without their knowledge." Loki smirked, his eyes never leaving Olivia, an unfamiliar emotion swimming through them.

"Well not everyone is a murderous, psychotic idiot, are they?"

Loki clicked his tongue. "I deserve more praise than that, don't you think?" Loki smirked in amusement, completely loving the fact that he was annoying Fury.

Fury had quite clearly had enough, so pressed a button, which blackened the windows from the inside and out. Olivia caught a last glance at Loki, who winked at her, before all sight of him was lost.

"I don't understand why you would lock me up."

"There was a peak in the unknown energy the day you were brought in, we were merely observing you safely."

"You call locking me in a cage, treating me inhumanly, and subjecting me to discomfort and fear, safe? You have serious misconceptions, buddy."

Fury did not respond, but merely looked at the computer screens in front of him, five of them was footage of Loki, from different angles, monitoring everything he did. Others were of system controls, such as room temperature, and the controls of lights and sounds.

"You do pose a small risk to the safety of others."

"How exactly? I have not hurt anyone, in fact, I was the only one who was actually harmed." She rubbed the sore spot in the back of her neck, vowing to shout at whoever punched her.

"You could lose control, underestimate your abilities and sink the ship."

She scoffed, folding her arms. "Seriously? I am a good engineer, instead of locking me in a cage, why don't you let me work in the decks below, I can be of some use." She searched his face for some emotion, some sort of reaction, and smiled inwardly when he sighed in defeat.

"Fine. The low level decks are the ship's main engines, I'll get you uniform, and you can work down below."

She punched the air and held her hand out for a high five, which Fury just stared at, one eyebrow raised. She lowered her hand and smiled at him, trying to diffuse the tension.

"Let's get you back to your room, and I will bring you your uniform to change in to."

As they left the room, Olivia cast one last glance at the blackened window, hoping to catch a glance of the powerful god, but when the blackness did not disperse, she sighed, turning to follow her new boss.

* * *

**Again, thank you to everyone who has reviewed. You are all such lovely people! **

**Just to clear up, Olivia is definitely not going to end up with Tony. Pepper and him are too cute!  
**

**I am unsure who she will end up with, if anyone. If you a specific character to have big loves with her, then please share them with me, as all characters are equally amazing!  
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**Tell me what you think of this chapter, OH! and the rest of the gang will come soon! c:  
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	6. Chapter 6

After four days of working in the underbelly of the ship, she had had enough. What she initially thought was an exciting opportunity to expand her knowledge, to challenge herself mentally and physically, and to broaden her mental capacity, was actually a job which an average plumber could do. On numerous occasions she stood doing nothing, except check the engine's temperature, to check the system controls of the huge metal rotary fans keeping the main engine cool, and to fix a few loose screws in random areas of the engine room, including the door to the women's bathroom.

So instead of doing what she was asked to do, her 'job', she was sat on two large metal tubes suspended about nineteen feet from the solid ground. The height gave her a perfect view of everyone and everything, she could see every movement, including who was going to the toilet and when. Surprisingly, the Chief engineer 'Buddy' was the one who went the most, going approximately four times an hour, probably due to all of the chafing from his 'uniform'.

She stretched her arms in front of her, not liking the claustrophobic feeling she got when her uniform completely moulded around the muscles of her body. She felt completely naked; she felt each cool breeze, each small wave of heat, as if it were on her bare skin. She had seen a few female employees in which the suit obviously suited, mainly those with bigger chests, and more womanly curves. As she was on the small size, in curves and muscle, the uniform gave her the appearance of a teenage boy, flat chested, straight up and down. This uniform was a large indicator of the fact that she didn't belong to this place. That she would never fit in with the fit, disciplined robots of whatever this was.

She had tried desperately to fit in with Stark's top level employees, drinking frapuccinos, cappucinos, mochacinnos and whatever chino was out there, buying herself a blackberry, which she broke in the first 48 hours of owning, even playing golf once, which resulted in a near-decapitation of Mister Jones, Stark's head engineer, but she had given up. She knew she was different, clumsy, unorganized, completely un-disciplined, and sarcastic. Things that would not mix with the high level prissiness that possessed all of Stark's employees. She was not well liked in the office. At all. But then again, she did not usually conform to the rules.

Is this what it was like being in a mental hospital? Clothes restricting every movement, being kidnapped, the silence, the feeling of crippling loneliness? She sighed loudly, and drew her knee to her body, allowing her to rest her chin on it. She missed all of her friends and family, her brother. Although she didn't have many good friends, she missed the few that she considered close to her. Maybe she should call them? Have they called her? Do they know she is missing? Oh wait, everything she had previously owned were now taken away from her. As if she was a common criminal. She couldn't suppress the frown.

And at this time of need, she couldn't help but think of the one person she shouldn't. He had plagued her thoughts every day for the past five years. She could recall every single detail of when they first met, and every meeting after that. She could remember his smell, it was the second thing she noticed about him, it was something she had never smelt before, something so intoxicating that it made her lick her lips, it filled all of her senses and sent her into a dull trance.

And before she knew it she was smiling again, and not just a small movement, it was a full teeth-baring grin. She remembered how he made her feel, the happiest she had ever felt in her life, as if she could do anything and everything, she was invincible; she was the most exotic, special person in the whole world. He made her do things that were completely out of character, quit her job, go gambling, change her whole style. He had helped shape who she was today.

Though she knew that she shouldn't be thinking of him, he had nearly got her killed on numerous occasions, and was the only person to ever break her heart, and not just break it, but stomped on it until it was in a thousand little pieces, too broken to piece back together, and make her feel so low she contemplated ending her life.

Woah. Do not want to go back to that period of her life again.

She had been up on the tubes for a total of an hour, contemplating life, contemplating getting out of wherever she was, contemplating going back to 'working'. She hated the circumstances that brought her here, and she hated being around mindless dummies, blending in with each other into one un-special glue. At least with Stark, every small thing mattered, no matter how small.

She was interrupted from her thoughts by a rather loud voice, piercing through the quiet air. "Holmes." A feminine voice, a slight edge to it, screaming that if you do something wrong this woman would probably kill you with her ninja-chops.

She heard the once quiet chatter of the robot employees completely disappear, and the silence swept through the whole of the engineering room like a blanket, it was smothering.

"Olivia Holmes."

Damn it. She rolled off of the tubes, and then stepped out of the women's bathroom. "What."

A woman of average height, red curls and a figure that obviously suited the uniform was standing in the middle of the crowd, everyone was facing her, everyone completely silent and still, as if they were scared she would kill them with her ultra-laser beam eyes. She turned her head towards Olivia and strode towards her. Oh crumbs. She is ninja chop woman.

"Fury has called for you to be tested." Her voice was tinged slightly with a Russian accent.

"Tested? Tested for what?" She couldn't wait for a reply, because mystery woman had grabbed her elbow and was now towing her out of the engine room and up and down many stairs. "Who are you?"

"Romanov." She replied impassively, not even turning to look in Olivia's direction.

Lovely woman. "Well, Manoff." Romanov's eyebrows rose a fraction. "I do not appreciate you hitting me in the back of my neck, it still is tender. And can you tell me..."

"We are here." Romanov stood in front of her and indicated for her to step through the door to the left of her. It blended in quite nicely with the rest of the grey surroundings.

"Please." Olivia elongated the word, sarcasm dripping from her tongue.

Romanov did not respond well to sarcasm, as she frowned deeply, her eyes darkening slightly, before pushing Olivia with a little more force than necessary through the door. It immediately shut after both feet were through.

The room she had just stepped in was, in one word, huge. The floors were slightly softer than the walls, but only just, there were some patches in the carpet-like floor indicating this room is used regularly. There were no details in any of the walls and flooring, only the same continuous grey running through. Nothing immediately sprang to detail as she looked around, nothing to signal she was in any danger, but with this place she could never be too cautious.

"Ah Miss Holmes."

Out of nowhere three large, long windows appeared in the top of the wall, very near the ceiling, with sharp edges, it looked as though as though it was carved out of the wall. It blended perfectly. And on the other side of the window stood Fury, with about six others, barely visible from where she was standing.

"Few questions Blackbeard. Where am I? Why am I here? What am I doing?"

She heard a quiet chuckle from the viewing area. "Well, this is the testing area. We test all employees here to determine if they are up to the physical standard they should be." Olivia gulped. "Many different areas are tested."

Olivia sighed. "How long will this take?"

"As long as you make it to be."

Olivia looked around, hers and Fury's voice echoed in the expansive room. Any methods of torture could be hidden. And these were the first people, or person, to actually fully communicate with her all day. "Will I get hurt?"

"All tests are necessary."

"Wow. Comforting." She scratched the back of her neck and sighed loudly. "Okay let's go."

She faintly heard a few murmurs from the speakers, then Fury's loud and clearly. "First test, Speed."

"Do people have to watch?" She cringed physically.

Fury ignored her comment. "You are familiar with the beep test, are you Miss Holmes?"

She scoffed. "Gym may not be my finest class, but I am aware of what a beep test is."

"Just do the test Holmes."

As soon as the beeps began, she knew that it would not end well. She began fine, but gradually became more and more embarrassed with her performance. She silently wished that everyone that was watching her getting sweatier, slower and more exhausted would somehow go blind in an instant, or have the roof collapse in on them, or they all disintegrate into a dust pile. Stamina wasn't a problem, speed on the other hand, was. She only barely managed to get to stage 7, before she tripped and fell over her feet.

And as she led there, wishing that the ground would envelope her so that no one could laugh at her, she couldn't believe how different her life was now to a week ago. Working for the government was better than working for Tony Stark, but she missed Chinese Fridays, and her Spice Girls album. Instead, she was subjected to 'alone time', a prison cell as a house, and three square meals a day.

"Miss Holmes? Your next test is to test your strength." Fury's monotonous voice boomed round the empty room.

She scoffed, pulling herself to her feet slowly. "Yeah, good luck finding it buddy."

By the quiet grunt that followed in response, she guessed he already knew about the lack of strength she possessed. Regardless, many sets of weights rose from the ground, so that they all lay in front of her. A long metal bar was suspended by a holder a few feet off the ground, on either side were thick circular weights, starting small then stretching out to large. Even before she began, she pictured the outcome.

And she was right. For she only lifted a total of five times, not really paying attention to the weight, but focusing on the strain it took on her muscles. She briefly wondered how scary red head did on her physical tests, but the thought was soon pushed from her head as the weights quickly disappeared.

"Now, reflexes."

"Wha…"

Before she had time to finish her sentence, the room blackened, a quiet boom sounded from the left of her, and she heard a small whiz of something fly through the air, and before it had a chance to hit her, she quickly raised her hand, outstretched, to receive a slightly-heavy small ball. Three more quiet booms sounded from all around her, and she caught the little balls before they had a chance to hit her. Impressed with herself, she smirked, loving knowing she was finally good at something. Several more booms followed, and she listened to the air, the different sounds of the whizzes, judging the speed and proximity of the approaching objects, catching every one before they hit her.

"Good." A hint of impression in his voice had her grinning, as the room dramatically lightened. And in front of her, for about two hundred meters, were red lines, dotted at different angles, different heights, lasers. "Get through the maze, avoiding the lasers, as they might sting if you touch them."

"Are they going to burn me?"

"Any time you are ready Holmes."

She had already done well in her reflex test, so she was guessing that this was her agility and flexibility test. Hopefully that would be it. Hopefully. She didn't want to respond, so just started to sprint at the lasers, before she touched the lasers, she took a deep breath, and imagined she was flying, she had dropped down from the sky and was now falling, she imagined the sense of freedom she felt, and let the calm take over. And before she knew it, she was on the other side, unscathed, and with her pride threatening to burst through her chest.

"Your final test is to test your self-defense skills. This is to see your level of self-defense, to understand how you train, and how much we need to train you."

Out of all of the tests, this was the only test where she felt genuinely scared. She felt the blood rush from her face, and an overwhelming sea of sickness swept through her body. She gulped as she slowly turned around to see a man the same age as her advancing from the now-shut door. She didn't even know how to defend herself, didn't know how to punch, how to 'prepare' herself, or how to shield herself, and by the look of this guy's physique, he sure knew how to do everything and more. He could probably punch her in the arm and snap it right off.

He stopped when he was in front of her and held his hands in front of his face, so she mimicked his actions and held her clenched fists to her face. They circled each other for a few seconds, adding to the already high tension.

"Hi, I'm Olivia." She smiled, eliciting no response from her sparring partner.

He made the first move, a right punch, that was supposed to hit her face, but she jumped her whole body to the right, and she turned to run away from him, not caring about the stupid test and wanting to get the hell out of there. Suddenly she was stopped by a cool finger hooking into the neck of her suit and dragging her back, she screamed as she fell back onto the ground, landing with a thud. The guy was standing over her, smirking down at her.

She gritted her teeth and jumped to her feet, launching herself at him, throwing her hands and legs at him in any way she could. His face remained impassive as he completely covered his face with his forearms. She thought she was doing quite well until his left hand sprang from his face, it was so quick, so powerful that she was quite impressed.

But was not impressed when his fist collided with her nose. Her head flew back, her body jerked from the power of the punch, and once again she was falling to the ground. Though this time her nose was so painful she started to cry, so overwhelming that all of her senses were dulled as the pain erupted all over her face. She held her hands over her nose, not fully touching it. She had never been punched, let alone been in a fight. She didn't know if it was the shock, or the pain that was causing her body to shake slightly.

She barely registered the guy standing over her again, and Fury's voice through the room. When she started to regain herself, humiliation took over the shock, everyone had just watched as she pathetically tried to defend herself, watched as she was hurt and did absolutely nothing. She wished the ground would swallow her whole. Suffocating her rather than have to bear this deep embarrassment. She opened her eyes, the guy had chestnut messy hair, and a look of sympathy, he was offering her an outstretched hand. As if she would touch the guy that just punched her in the face. She angrily got to her feet, shoving the guy out of her way and power-walked towards the exit.

"Miss Holmes, Miss Romanov will show you…"

"Go fuck yourself Fury." She shouted, then disappeared.

* * *

**I am really sorry for the wait! **

**Rather dwell on it, here it is!**

**Pop a review in, and I will be on my way (:**


	7. Chapter 7

She didn't know quite where she was going, but she had decided that she wanted to get off of this ship, plane, whatever it was. She had had enough of every single person on board, from the agents to the coffee boys to the cleaners. Every single person was untrustworthy, and she hated all of them. She appeared right outside the big metal door of the 'training room', and was greeted by grey metal walls, as well as Agent Romanov, waiting there with arms folded and a permanent scowl on her face, also, whose personality blended in perfectly with her surroundings.

"Let's…"

"I am not going anywhere with you, or anyone like you. I am getting the hell of this ship."

Romanov made a move to grab Olivia's arm, but she jumped out of the way, batting the arm away from her with her hand. Her eyes had widened and she was now standing on one leg, the other was bent at the knee, her arms were above her head, in the 'praying mantis' position. "Stay away from me."

Romanov growled and advanced towards Olivia, quite quickly, but Olivia was one step ahead. Flashing the two finger salute at the stunned Romanov, Olivia disappeared.

And appeared in her usual spot, perched on the suspended thick black tubes in the engine room. Never before this day had she felt so humiliated. She wasn't normally intimidated, not even by Stupid Stark himself in his stupid red and yellow metal suit with his stupid billions of money. But to have been watched by people as someone beat her down and have them do absolutely nothing was on her top ten list of most embarrassing moments of her life.

She threw her arms in the air in frustration. She didn't even know how to fight, didn't even know how to punch, so why put her in a room with a highly trained assassin- ninja-type man? Was it just to embarrass her? To humiliate her? If she recalled, an engineer doesn't need to know how to fight slash kill people. What situation could possibly require her to kill someone? If they stole her spanner? Or making guns… that made more sense.

She sat down, drawing her knees up and hugging them. It took her four and a half years to finally fit in at Stark Industries, messy introductions, long periods of being ignored, being laughed at, teased and generally being treated unfairly. And she hadn't made a single friend here in the week she had been here. She doubted she will ever make any friends here, as the people here knew that they deserved to be there and she did not. Although she was just as qualified, just as talented as they were, they stole all of her self-confidence, many 'teaching' her how to use a spanner.

Was it a week since arrival? It felt like months, maybe even years.

"You've actually been here for a month."

To say she was scared was an understatement. She jumped so much that she jerked forward and nearly fell from the pipes, had it not been for the strong arm that grabbed her round the waist and pulled her back to her previous position. She didn't realise she was speaking aloud, but regardless, people need to stop sneaking up on her, because she always ended up being in awkward situations just like her current predicament. Her cheeks flushed red and she scooted out of her boss's arms quite quickly.

"Um… you're welcome. And you were 'sleeping' for about two weeks, then you woke up, tried to kill everyone, which wasn't greatly appreciated, then slept for a week, then…"

"I get the picture." Stark held his hands up and shook his head, "and I did not try to kill everyone, I was trying to run away." Stark remained silent. A quiet Stark was strange, she was used to him talking non-stop about the most stupid of things. She felt odd. She crossed her legs and twiddled her thumbs, unsure of what to do or say. "How did you find me?"

Stark turned his head towards her, and shrugged. "I have my sources."

"Oh god… I don't have a tracking thing in my skin, do I?" She began to look at her arms, her legs, her stomach, her hands, imagining a tiny little bug under her skin.

"Yes, all Stark employees are knocked unconscious and a tracking mechanism is implanted in their brains." Stark placed his hands in his lap and remained impassive.

Olivia froze and stared at him, mouth open in horror.

"I'm kidding Liv. Can I call you Liv?" She tried to respond. "Liv it is." She closed her mouth and half smiled.

After a couple of minutes of awkward silence, Tony sighed and swung his legs over the edge. "I've been keeping an eye on you." She turned to look at him. "Ever since you stumbled in on me and the Green-Mean- Machine" What? "I wanted to make sure you were alright." He didn't smile, didn't smirk, didn't make a stupid face, just remained blank.

He didn't look at her, but she kept quiet, waiting for one of his trademark sarcastic remarks, one of his condescending jokes. She raised an eyebrow when he didn't say anything. "Seriously?"

This time, he did look at her, fully turning his face and body towards her. "Sure. Actually listening back, it does make me sound like I have some serious stalking tendencies, which I do, sort of. Some slight tendencies, and some full on serial clown killer ones."

"Clown?"

"Clowns are creepy."

She nodded her head in response. It was sad for her to admit this, but she was actually enjoying talking to Stark, whether it be from her being deprived of social interaction, or whether she was beginning to like him. Definitely the social interaction.

"It's a good hiding spot, this. Took me a while to find you."

"Well you did find me, so it can't be that good."

"Well, I am Iron Man so…." She groaned loudly and crossed her arms. "Look, Liv, I just came to see if you were alright."

When he stopped speaking she looked up at him, to see him staring back at her waiting for a response. "I'm fine" she stumbled, "been through worse." She managed a pathetically shaky laugh, causing her and Tony to cringe slightly.

"Okay." He nodded slowly. "I also came to say that if you ever need anything, don't hesitate to come to me." He was slow, almost painful, as if saying something meaningful and serious caused him great discomfort.

Olivia recoiled slightly with surprise, touched with his act of… kindness. She smiled and looked at her hands. "Thanks Stark."

"Seriously, sugar, Tony, please. Stark makes me sound too… formal, like an old man." He stood up, brushing his trousers of invisible dust.

"This was… nice, strange, but nice." She grinned at him.

"I am human. Well, half-human, half-robot, Iron Man, y'know." He wrapped his knuckles against his chest plate. She sighed, shaking her head, before standing up next to him. "Reckon you can give me a lift down?"

She laughed, throwing her head back and wiping away fake tears. "I might rip you apart!"

"So that's a no?"

"No Tony. See you later, I'm off to bed."

"Have fun on your… table."

* * *

Olivia felt herself starting to wake up, she could move her limbs, though they felt groggy from sleep. There was no light on, so she was sure it was still the middle of the night, she was unsure why she had woken up, maybe she had heard a noise, caught a chill… Boom. Rippling pain shot through her hip and spread all the way through her body. She couldn't open her eyes. Boom. The blindingly white hot pain pulsated throughout every orifice, every crevice and every part of her body. Her head felt as if someone was clawing her brain out through her nose, ripping chunk after chunk. Boom. She spasmed so violently her body contorted into unnatural shapes. She felt a dull ache on her face and front of body, but it was soon blocked out by the overwhelming agony. Her skin was being carved out, inch by inch she was sure of it, her insides were trying to push their way through her skin and out of her. Then fire, starting from her hip, and all the way through her veins, slowly, excruciatingly, until they reached her toes and scalp. She was alight, inside her body was boiling, roasting under the searing heat.

And just as quickly as it started, it ended, a cool wave of calm washed through her, soothing her burns, soothing her pain. And she was normal, except the numbing aftermath, killing her nerves and causing her to shake. She was weak, oh so weak as the attack had drained her physically and emotionally. She was dead to the world and she wanted to stay that way. She was sinking, sinking into an ocean so deep it became serene. As if all of her troubles had drowned and left her at peace with herself. Hell she was delirious, but she wanted to stay that way if it meant feeling like this. She felt people try to pull her up and out of the water, many hands grabbed at her and tried to lift her, but she didn't want to go, she wanted to stay and sleep forever.

"Sleep, my love, sleep." A voice whispered gently into her ear, lulling her into the infinite blackness.

* * *

**So I'm back, sorry for keeping you guys waiting, and I want to thank everyone who's reviewed also, you make me want to go on!**

**So Steven will be in the next chapter, because we need him. Now. **

**Anyway, leave a review, and Chapter 8 will be up shortly! (:**


	8. Chapter 8

Floating. She was floating through the darkness. She could feel herself moving, but there was no wind whipping past her, no whistling in her ears, she was just gliding in the nothingness. Was she drowning? Was she dead? All she can remember was her body being on fire, searing pain ripping through her skin and bones, melting her muscles into goo. Maybe someone had put out the flames but had drowned her in the process. So saving her by killing her. How stupid.

She tried to wiggle her fingers, open her eyes, kick her legs, but she was paralysed, locked inside her own body like a prisoner. How many times had she felt like this? It was actually kind of nice, not being able to feel anything, no pain, no hurt, no anger, it was euphoric. Maybe she was floating down a river somewhere in the Amazon, after Pirate man killed her and dumped her body off into the ocean, which also explained the floating sensation. Or maybe she was a ghost, drifting through the afterlife, long undead road to nowhere. Or maybe she was just dead, dead and gone and she would only have herself for company for the rest of her existence. How boring. She can get annoying sometimes.

God how long had she been here? It felt like an eternity, her arms and legs ached from just hanging limply by her sides. So she wasn't led down, nor was she sitting up, or leaning against something. So basically she was flying. She'd always wanted to fly, to travel. Now she can fly to wherever she wanted! But it was in her mind, rather than in actual real life. How depressing. It was like being unable to touch a loved one, just being able to stare at them. Annoying.

"Olivia."

A smooth voice wormed its way through the black and surrounded her in a warm cocoon. Maybe she was dreaming, she thought she was dead. He sounded worried. Scared for her. How can he reach her here? How can he have such power as to speak to her in the beyond? Why was he here? Of course he was here. He was Iron Man.

"Tony?" She gasped as she made her lips moved; maybe she wasn't dead after all.

And as soon as she responded, the peace she had grown used to shattered into a million pieces. She stopped floating and was now falling, free-falling off the tallest building in the world. The power of the wind whipped all of her hair behind her in a long trail; she felt the cold biting her skin as she plummeted to the centre of the earth. She tried to open her eyes but she couldn't, they had been melted closed, her arms and legs blew uselessly like rags behind her. She was okay with not flying now, she just wanted to be on the ground, safely and not in a big bloody puddle. She opened her mouth and momentarily she couldn't breathe, her throat constricted and she was dying. Then she filled her lungs with a big helping of freezing air and screamed, screamed as loud and as high as she possibly could, hoping someone would catch her before she splattered, some helicopter/Tom Cruise person would swing by her and grab her and take her into the sunset.

"Miss Holmes."

Her eyes shot open. She was in Stark's office. What? The same beautiful view from the ceiling-to-floor glass windows, the same spacious white bookcases filled with random old books lining the walls, the same ugly black and white checked two-seater sofa in the corner, and the same smug- faced twat sat in front of her behind the protection of his expensive glass desk.

"Miss Holmes?"

She looked at him; there was concern as well as slight disgust in his face. "Tony, what are we doing here?"

He frowned, and then chuckled lightly. "You are pitching your 'brilliant' idea to me about our new system generators."

"What?" She looked down at her lap, she was wearing the same clothes she was wearing at the interview, and her idea notes were resting in a blue folder on her knees. She looked around again, maybe the whole 'Shield' situation was a dream, she was day-dreaming and now she's back to the safety of Stark's office. She then turned to the sofa, expecting to see Pepper typing away furiously on her new laptop, but it was empty. "Where's Pepper?"

He smiled, which turned slowly into a grin, a big Cheshire-Cat style grin, bearing all of his front and back teeth, which were weirdly pointed like small little daggers. She didn't remember him ever having pointy teeth, only a pointy tail and pitchfork. "She's outside."

Olivia turned her head towards the door and then made the chilling discovery that the door had gone. Where the glass wall once was, which lead from the small front desk on the top floor to his office door, now replaced with white plaster. No door, no exit. No Pepper. No noise. This was a dream.

"Yes, it sure is." Tony was now leaning over her, his face stretched to accommodate the huge, un-natural grin that had now taken up half his head.

"Always knew you had a big head Stark." She chuckled.

BAM. His hand felt like a hammer to the side of her head as she was thrown off of her chair and sent sprawling to the ground. Thick, strong throbs radiated from the impact site, and a loud ring screamed in her ears. She clambered to her hands and knees and shook her head, trying to regain her balance.

"Sorry, I should've warned you about the step." A warm hand tucked under her arm and gently lifted her to her feet.

What the heck was Coulson doing there? She opened her eyes and discovered she was no longer in Stark's office but now in a very familiar long, grey corridor. She knew where she was going, and she was actually quite excited. Now she remembered, she had met Coulson and his gang of goons before.

"Miss?" She smiled and nodded quickly.

Exactly ten minutes down this shining grey road resided the man she had watched in awe for months, a superhero. She remembered this moment; she was 20, and Stark had sent her to meet a medical marvel, Stark's father's project.

And as she stepped through the last remaining metal door, her eyes fell upon the unconscious form of a very muscular man, still wearing his blue and red uniform. He would've looked peaceful, had it not been for the blue tinge to his skin, the ice that crept from his neck all across his jaw and had now frozen his whole body. She remembered gasping at him, how was he still alive? With all the ice that stuck to his body? Had his organs frozen in the process?

"We need to keep him frozen to allow him to remain stable as we melt the ice slowly."

Background voices, blurred conversation with the most boring man in the world. She only had eyes for the man who had inspired billions, who had fought for his country with honour and valour. She approached him slowly until she was standing next to him. God he was cold, was he even breathing?

"Isn't he just awesome." Coulson whispered to the doctor. Ha.

She leaned in, wanting to see any signs that he was alive. Something, machines lie, the heart monitor that showed a small, flat heartbeat could lie. Never believe in something you can't see for yourself. He wasn't breathing. This isn't how it happened.

"Doctor"

His eyes sprang open and he stretched his mouth wide to take a giant gulp of air, he broke his arms free from the ice and was now wriggling even more to try to free himself. She yelped, jumping backwards. He turned to her and grabbed her roughly by the upper arms. This is definitely not how it happened.

"Help ME." He screeched; his eyes wide and blue, his skin turning to cold, hard, clear ice. His hands stuck to her skin and she screamed again.

Then a shot ran through the air and Rogers exploded into millions of little tiny ice pieces, the force knocked her and everyone else in the room flat on their backs.

But now she wasn't in the medical centre. She was lying on grass, long dewy grass, tickling her arms and face. It was dark; she could see each and every star in the sky, including the big, white, beautiful moon. A warm summer breeze blew gently against her face. This was a memory she did not want to relive again. She shut her eyes, trying to block out what was happening, what was going to happen, she felt her eyelashes moisten, as fear crept up her throat .

"Olivia." It was him. His silky, velvety, heavenly voice filled her ears and mind and she instantly felt at ease, she felt safe, as if he had wrapped her in his warm arms and had shielded her from everything bad in the world. "Open your eyes." But she knew what was going to come next. And she did not want to open her eyes, to play along, to watch the scene all over again. Why did she have to see this again, have to experience this.

But she succumbed to the temptation and did as he commanded. There he was, in all his ethereal beauty. Long, slick black hair, white illuminating skin, lean body clad in leathery uniform. A long, golden spear shimmered into existence in his right hand, a long billowing black and green cape spread from his shoulders to his feet, and the most frightening of them all, a glittering golden helmet appeared from his chin all the way to the top of his head, where two massive horns sprouted from the temples. "Loki."

His blank expression changed, he frowned deeply and bared his teeth, he was like a predator and she was his prey, he lifted his spear in the air and brought it down in her abdomen. She didn't feel any physical pain this time, other than the piercing pain spreading from her chest, the sting of betrayal cutting through her heart like an arrow.

"You truly are a pathetic worm, crying like a little infant child, you look disgusting, you are disgusting."

"Loki." She was crying, bawling, her chest heaving and her breath coming in quick, deep gulps. "Please." She had lost control; never did she think that she could become so vulnerable, especially to someone like him. What was wrong with her? Pathetic. She deserved this. She loved him.

He raised his spear above his head, his face shrouded in darkness, he radiated power and rage, he wanted to hurt her. _Crack_. A flash of lightning illuminated his face and body, his wide eyes, his maniacal grin, his pale skin. This was an image that replayed in her mind time and time again. It was burned into her mind, a scar in her brain.

He grinned widely as he brought down his spear, and she closed her eyes, waiting for the pain. And it didn't disappoint as three seconds later she felt the agonising electricity shoot through her chest and run down her limbs.

It didn't last too long, which she was grateful for, but there was an aftermath, that left her whole body tingling, she felt every inch of her muscles, every sinewy strand burn as if she was being slow- roasted over a lovely warm fire. It was a nice feeling, it was better than being freezing. She was very comfortable, it let her readjust herself and calm herself down after what she had just re-lived, or what she thought she had re-lived… Very confusing. Stretching her arms out in front of her, she tried regain the feeling in her limbs. But was immediately stopped by sharp, painful tugs from the creases in her elbows and in the middle of her hands.

What the hell?!

Her eyes snapped open and was met by a bright grey ceiling with no indentations or patterns. Where…? She looked around, machines were either side of her, fast, high pitch beeping came from them, two of the walls were made just of windows. She raised both arms to see little trails of blood coming from the needles in both creases of her arms. She began breathing more heavily, but she was utterly horrified to find that something was down her throat, constricting her breathing and stopping her from swallowing, she couldn't even move her mouth. She began gagging, choking on whatever the hell was in her mouth and throat. She tried to move her hand to pull it out but was stopped by a warm hand gently wrapping around her own.

"Hey, hey, it's okay, calm down." A deep and soft voice sang to her.

She stared into baby blue eyes and instantly felt at ease, even if there were small tears flowing out of the corner of her eyes.

"I'll go get someone to , y'know." Motioning to the tube in her mouth, she nodded quickly.

A nurse soon came in and slowly removed the horrible plastic hose thing from her chest, up her throat and out her mouth, which was shortly followed by spluttering and retching on Olivia's behalf. God she forgot how good it was to breath properly again, or have her mouth empty.

"Can… take…" She lifted her arms.

"Oh, I can take the ones in your arms out, but not the ones in your elbows, sorry, it's just a precaution, if anything happens, if you need any pain killers or something." The nurse smiled sympathetically, she reminded Olivia of candy floss, really nice and sweet, but a little too sickly if you get too much of it. So she nodded in agreement and let the nurse nearly rip the thin needles from her veins, like an animal.

Olivia grinned and bared the pain, fighting the urge to vomit, until the nurse left the room, just before one lingering look at the man sat on the chair next to Olivia.

He was staring at her, trying to read her face, his hands clasped in between his knees. His arms rested on his thighs as he leaned forward slightly. "How are you feeling?"

She looked up at him and smiled. "Shit..." She rasped.

He blushed slightly and nodded. "Oh, sorry." There were a few minutes of silence when he finally shifted his position so he was leaning back in his chair. "I've been sat here for a while, I recognise you, d'you work for Stark?" She nodded slowly, frowning slightly. "Ah, I, uh, visited his building, he wasn't there but I looked around at what his father had done, y'know machine wise." She smiled again and nodded. "Anyway, I think you were there, I was actually lost and wondered into your little workshop, we spoke, and you said about your 'hot-headed, statue-like fellow employees'."

She laughed, or at least tried to, sounding a bit like a 90 year old heavy chain smoking monkey. "Was year ago."

"I haven't got out much." He smiled.

Just as she was going to start a meaningful conversation with the lovely man, the one and only Miss Miserable herself appeared out of thin air. "Rogers, you're needed upstairs." She spared one glance at Olivia, not making any facial movement, and then turning and striding down wherever.

He sighed. "Y'know, I really don't understand half the things that they say up there." He shrugged before heading out the door, then turned. "Get some rest; I'll be down as soon as I can."

She nodded and watched as he disappeared out of her sight. She grinned and led back down, she knew she was unable to go back to sleep, but she didn't mind, she was looking forward to Captain America coming back to her, and charming the crap out of her.

But first things first, what the hell happened?

* * *

**Holy crap thank you all for the story alerts/reviews and favourites!**

**Sorry I've been gone a while, no excuses other than writer's block.**

**Anyway, I'm back in the game, next chapter up soon! Leave some love in review-form! (:**


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